[Mass protests demand: "Stop racist attacks" Above: Howard…]

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Mass protests demand: "Stop racist attacks" Above: Howard Beach, N.Y. protest against racist violence on Dec. 27. In Forsyth Cunty, Ga., 25,000 marched on Jan. 24. Thousands more protested around the country during MLK birthday celebrations. SSEA NESS GANGS BRUA RY VOL. 5, No. 2 50 CENTS Anger has ; spread throughout the Black community in response to recent racist mob attacks in the Howard Beach section of New York City and in Forsyth County, Ga.

Chanting "What do we want? Justice!" over 3000 people braved the freezing weather to march on New York's City Hall on Jan. 21. The Day of Protest was the culmination of several marches and rallies organized during the last month.

A one-day boycott of white-owned businesses was also organized on Jan. 21 to emphasize demands that New York City authorities act to put an end to racist violence and that they apprehend and punish the thugs who attacked three Black men in Howard Beach.

In that incident, on Dec. 20, Michael Griffith, a Black construction worker, was struck and killed by an oncoming car as he fled a gang of white youths. He and his two companions, Cedric Sandiford and Timothy Grimes, had been beaten repeatedly for over 25 minutes with baseball bats, tire irons, and tree limbs.

The driver who killed Griffith has not been indicted to date, although he obviously committed a hit-and-run. In fact, only three of the lynchers were booked, and charges against them of murder, manslaughter, and assault were quickly dropped in favor of lesser charges of "reckless endangerment." ort to apartheid in South Africa. District Attorney John Santucci-under investigation himself for relations with organized crime figures—announced that his department was making background (continued on page checks on the three victims.

Blaming the victims

But what crime did the victims commit? Griffith, Sandiford, and Grimes were "guilty" of merely walking into a pizza parlor, where they attempted to use the phone because of car trouble.

Because the presence of Blacks in a white neighborhood was considered "suspicious, the police were called. The police arrived immediately, but soon left-allowing a lynch mob to gather outside.

Police officers claim that they came a second time, after neighbors reported several whites beating three Blacks to death in the street. But again, the cops "saw nothing" and left.

There is growing evidence that the scandal-racked administration of Mayor Edward Koch is guilty of a cover-up in its failure to pursue the case. In a concession (continued on page 7, in “Stop the Bombing El Salvador”)

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